people watching

Yesterday after work I had some time to putz around downtown and do some people-watching. Here are the results.

I saw a grinning freckled girl about age 12 with a huge skateboard. I saw a woman with a wooden canoe paddle crossing a bridge. I saw a dog (okay, I did some "dog-watching" too) who was the precise shape and size of a great dane but was coloured exactly like a dalmation. There was a funny woman who stood too close to me and stared past my head in confusion before she snapped out of it and then rather sheepishly asked for directions.

I saw two men get out of a cab and then stand on the street corner staring intently in one direction as if they were waiting for something or someone. They looked like somewhat unlikely companions. One was about 20 years old, redheaded, looking like your typical "boy next door" wearing jeans and a white T-shirt. He had a camera case/man-purse slung over one shoulder. The other was about 40, had long curly greying hair, and had that gaunt look that one often sees in people who live on the street. By their posture towards each other, it seemed like they considered each other buddies, nothing more and nothing less. After five minutes of staring, the young one gave a sharp whistle, and then they switched corners and stared intently in another direction. I looked away for a minute, and when I looked back they were gone.

A group of 4 adults walked out of a hotel. They looked like tourists from some midwest American town or city in their really generic haircuts and really generic clothing. One was the mom of a single 3-year-old, and at first glance I judged her to be one of those women who identifies really strongly with her mom-identity...you know, the sort who is somewhat too protective and likely to develop into a full-blown minivan-driving soccer mom in a few years' time. Temporarily unobserved, her kid tried to pick up a flyer off the dirty sidewalk with the same arm that he was using to clutch a plush toy to his chest, because his other arm was tied in a sling. Having achieved this feat, the boy ran to his mom saying, "Mommy! I found a newspaper! I found a newspaper!" To my surprise, the mom looked the kid in the eye and said, "Ooh, a newspaper! Did you get it for Daddy? Why don't you give it to Daddy?" in a good, genuine-sounding tone of voice. After the father thanked his son for the gift, the kid proceeded to trail behind his parents to pick up another flyer with his one non-gimpy-but-full-of-plush arm, saying, "Daddy! I found another newspaper for you!" I had misjudged this family by their blah appearance, I think I want to be a relaxed but genuine kind of family like that someday.

new job in action!

I have now been at my new job for two days. I work for Urban Promise. I am definitely going to like it. The UP offices are in a big house that was once the manse of the church next door. It's got a real comfy feel to it. Three of the people training me on Monday walked around the house barefooted. I can wear pretty much anything I want (within limits of general decency, of course), I can keep my nosestud in, and I don't come home smelling like coffee.

The job is super-flexible in many ways. Firstly, so long as I put in full-time hours and don't schedule events for teens during school hours, I can work whenever I want. I don't have to punch in or out. Also, so long as I maintain the core programs of getting teenagers trained and volunteering in the after-school programs for kids, I can pretty much plan whatever else I want to do with them. I can build this ministry to suit my skills and my passions and also to meet whatever we discern the needs of the teens to be.

Did I mention that I get 4 weeks of vacation? I pretty much need to take them in pre-determined windows (2 at Christmas, 1 in late June and 1 in late August), but there will of course be flexibility when it comes to attending my brother's wedding next May.

I like the kind of Christian atmosphere at this job as well. There is a real desire for the kids and especially the teens to get to know God, but they're not trying to be a conversion factory. It's basically a lot of intentional exposure to Christian beliefs and values within the framework of the after-school programs, and the rest is up to them. This might seem like an odd comment, but I'm also glad that I've heard the staff use the word "ass", so that's not taboo.

I am going to like this job.

more pure genius

It's a good thing a picture is worth a thousand words (and therefore a video is worth a million), because this has rendered me speechless. WATCH IT. NOW!

Habakkuk 2:17

The sermon in church this morning was about Habakkuk. Yes, it was about the entire book, because it's only 3 or 4 pages (depending on your Bible's font size and page layout). In the middle of a list of woes to Israel, there was this verse (2,17):

"The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you,
and your destruction of animals will terrify you.
For you have shed human blood;
you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them."

So...I just found it kind of eerily relevant to the world today...yeah.

cabin fever

Aaron and I have been looking at our money situation, and it's looking kind of iffy as to whether we can make it out to Toronto for Christmas or not. (We're making my brother's wedding in May our first priority for travelling to Toronto, so Christmas got bumped down the list.) If we don't go for Christmas, it will be a full 17 months of staying in BC without visiting my home town. I also realize that is has now been a full 12 months since I was last in Manitoba, and if we wait until next summer, it will be a 2-year absence, and that's assuming we even can visit then.

I am not used to staying in one spot like this! I travelled all the time when I was a student, and even when I lived at home with my family in Toronto, we drove to Manitoba once or twice every year to see our extended family. Our only vacation this summer was when we road-tripped up to Dawson Creek, and although that was super-awesome, we never even left the province. (We really should have gone to the Yukon when we had the chance.) I guess I'm not sure I can handle it. I've got cabin fever.

ubergeek

Some friends of mine may be geeky in terms of comic books, science fiction, martial arts, and all sorts of other stuff, but this week I may have out-geeked you all. I play World of Warcraft, and here's the biggest news in my world this week: As of Tuesday, battlegrounds are now inter-realm, and it's totally blowing my mind! Arathi basin #11! Gah! Needless to say, with me having a week of holidays now that I'm between jobs, I have been playing lots.

In layperson terms: Instead of having to wait a long time between these special fun games, there are now lots and lots running all at once and the wait time is basically zero. Whoa.

superhero activities

I forgot to mention that the best parts of my day yesterday were when I rode the bus to work and I was standing in the aisle and holding the pole and my hair was blowing in the wind from the open window and I felt like a superhero, and also when I built pink dribble castles on top of the pink slushy drink I had for lunch by picking some slush up in my straw and then dribbling it on top of the castle (much like you can do with super-wet sand at a beach).

the death of a hamster

Yesterday was my last day at the coffee shop. I was getting pretty tired of most of the people I worked with, but I was kind of sad to say goodbye to some of the customers. I said goodbye to most customers in my head, because I wasn't sure how to say it out loud. I'll miss Mike, Shirley, the friendly Australian woman with the odd name I can never remember, the green tea latte guys who invited me to their house party, and Rob the busdriver, as well as the happy busdriver lady who likes oat bars. I will certainly not miss the notorious Short Mocha Man. But I will definitely miss all the kids who take martial arts lessons next door, because they are so friendly and polite and spunky and full of smiles. I want to have kids like that someday.

One of the kids, nunchuks girl, came in yesterday and said "There's a dead hamster outside." I looked up and out the window, and two other girls were pointing at somthing for me. So I put on a double layer of pastry gloves and went out to see what I could do. Someone had left a cardboard box labeled "free hamsters" just outside the martial arts place. It seems that the hamster had chewed a hole in the box and then keeled over dead just four feet into his freedom. His eyes were milky white and the girls were a little bit scared.

Girl: "Are you going to bury him?"
Me: "No."
Girl: "What are you going to do with him?"
Me: "I'm going to put him in the garbage."
Girl: "No!"
Another girl: "I guess he'll end up in a landfill and be covered up, so that's kind of like burying him."

So I picked up the hamster, and as soon as I touched him (remember: double-layered pastry gloves) and felt that he wasn't crusty and stiff like I thought but that he was soft and squishy with bones inside just like a real live hamster, then I got sad. I put him back in his box and carried him away to the dumpster. The girls didn't follow, I don't think they wanted to see. I was beginning to question whether I had done the right thing by just saying where I was putting the hamster or whether I should have lied to the kids to make them feel better. I was still sad for the hamster itself as well. So, as I put it in the dumpster, I said a prayer: "Oh Lord, receive this hamster into thy kingdom. Amen."

My dad might take issue with that because he's not one for ascribing souls or intelligence to animals, but I had to say something to properly wrap up the life and death of the hamster. I'm sure God can weed out the iffy theology and make sure the hamster ends up in the right place. I've decided that when I'm in heaven and I've already managed to look up all my old friends at least once, I'll have lots of time left to hunt for the hamster and make sure he's okay.

When nunchuks girl came back for a hot chocolate after her lesson, I gave her what is without a doubt the largest mountain of whipping cream I have ever managed to pile on top of a small cup and said "I'm sorry you had to see a dead hamster." The woman behind her in line smiled at me in a friendly and sympathetic way. I've spent much of the past 24 hours wondering whether maybe I shouldn't have told them I was putting the hamster in the garbage. I didn't want to make them more upset, but I didn't want to lie. I hope I did the right thing.

wedding funs

Robi and Rikki are married now! I'm amazed at how the managed to pull together a wedding in two short months.

My attire for the days events also followed the "last minute" theme. I have this great green silk corset top that I made almost a year ago, and I had yet to wear it to a really nifty event (although I did wear it to meet Neil Gaiman...but that wasn't really a dress-up occasion). So on Tuesday I went shopping for a good skirt to wear it with. Shopping was futile, however, because things were either ugly/stupid or way too expensive. For example, I found a really fun skirt for $120, but really I could have made it myself.

So I did. Except I only managed to go fabric shopping the afternoon before the wedding, and I only managed to actually start anything after dinner at around 9pm. So I stayed up until 5 sewing a skirt. Luckily I could sleep in until noon because the wedding only started at 3. I got many lovely comments on my skirt and top. One of Robi's friends said I was the best dressed person there, and a friend of the family said my top was "very classic...and other things," which Aaron heartily agreed with. Nothing like a nice vanity boost from time to time!

I was an ushette! I like being an usher-type, because you get all of the random but useful tasks. I was the guardian of the bridesmaids' purses, the putter-of-things on seats for people in the processional, and a general message conveyor. At the reception, I met a baby named Kai, and I got to hold him and he smiled at me even though he was super-tired. I also met a toddler named Matthew when he very deliberately ran his forehead into my knee. Who knows why kids do these things?

Congratulations Rikki and Robi!

point form (sort of)

Pink sunset, bright stars, fresh country air, getting someone else to take my 5:30am shift, running into traffic to refill a busdriver's coffee through the window, pleasant sunshine, only one shift left at my stupid job, finally getting my married surname on my driver's license, a sewing project, and a wedding to look forward to on Friday. Life is good.

most certainly half full

No Jan, the glass is not so half-full that I will never publish my blog again. I just don't always have something blogworthy to say, and I don't care to waste people's time and brain cells with something that I wouldn't want to read. But, for your sake, let me attempt to blog something worthy of reading:

Last night we tied our last Ultimate Frisbee game of the season. Then we went out to a pub, and it was fun. We talked about doulas, and why it makes guys more comfortable to call them "childbirth labour coaches" instead of something hippie like "doula." We let Bailey and Dan talk about some of their more extravagant drunken adventures in order to impress the new girl on our team. The jury's out on whether or not they were successful. The new girl Christina and I bonded over being from Toronto and the difficulty of making friends in a new place. Dan invited me to take dancing lessons with him, and Aaron took half-hearted exception to the fact that Dan was hitting on his wife. I had a nice chat with Julia about irritating jobs we've had. Julian and Julia (yes, they're a couple whose names only differ by one letter) ordered poutine once again, which I think is kind of gross. Aaron and I had nachos. I had a brown cow, which satisfied my dessert craving. Everyone else had pitchers and/or pints of beer. People played pool and Robi made possibly the best shot of his life.

So, that's what happened yesterday. Now comes the feedback: Is a blog entry in the style of "what I did today" worthy of your time, or shall I stick to the stories that I think are truly interesting? (Admittedly, what I often have a different idea of what is interesting to jabber about than other, so this may be a futile conversation.)

half-full or half-empty

I think it's kind of funny and scary that PMS actually exists. For me, I'll often be crabby and full of mood swings for a few days before I stop and think "Hey, what's wrong with me? My actions and emotions have been absolutely bizarre for days!" at which point I'll start counting days/weeks and then the light will dawn: "Ohhhhh...THAT'S why." It's as if for 7 days, something in the pit of my stomach shifts from my usual "the glass is half-full" to a concrete sense of angsty "half-emptiness." Anyway, it weirds me out that the world can look that different from one week to the next. I can't even imagine what it must be like to have a diagnosed mental illness like depression.

the art of shade

I have noticed an interesting summer phenomenon here in Vancouver. It first came to my attention when I was walking towards my bus stop and saw about 6 people tightly lined up across the sidewalk I was trying to walk along. What were they doing? I think they were waiting for the bus too, but why in such an odd formation?

It turns out they were all sharing the shade of the same lamppost.

How odd is that? Since that day, I've noticed all kinds of people trying to escape the sun by standing in the plentiful shade of various city poles (electrical, telephone, more street lamps, etc.) I just don't get it. Shade works to cool you off if, say, a large tree has sheltered a section of lawn from being heated up all day long. But a narrow band of shade on pavement does nothing, as you're still surrounded by heat-radiating concrete on all sides, and even the shaded concrete that you're standing on was in the sun 15 minutes ago and will be there again in 5. The only way the whole pole-shade thing makes sense is if you're trying to read a book without blinding yourself in the sun, and that has nothing to do with heat.

I laugh at the pole-shade people.

I had an argument with my dream

Last night I had a dream about the waterslides in West Edmonton Mall. I dreamt that we were there on an off day and the place was practically empty, so the lifeguards let Aaron and me in for a single free slide. Luckily I had my bikini in my bag, so I got to look fantastic instead of going in my t-shirt and shorts. I tried to get to the biggest waterslide, but I kept getting lost in all the staircases. When I finally gave up and decided to slide down the one that was in front of me, I found that I was wearing my glasses, which obviously couldn't come down the slide with me.

At this point I (the dreamer) had to draw the line with my dream. I knew for certain that I had left my glasses with Aaron, but the dream started arguing with me as if caught red-handed, "Well, you're wearing them now so obviously you didn't leave them with Aaron." I argued back, "WHATEVER. I left them with Aaron and you're just to proud to admit that you forgot. My glasses are down there with Aaron, so you'd better not keep pretending they're up here on my face." "But...you...ummm...Ha! You're still wearing your watch and a necklace and your earcuff AND your socks! Bet you didn't think of taking those off! You'll just have to leave them up here, slide down, and then climb all the way up to get them again anyway! Nya nyaaah!"

I was pretty sure I hadn't been wearing any of those things with my bikini in the first place, but since I hadn't made a point of leaving them with Aaron, I couldn't prove that the dream was wrong and outside its usual jurisdiction of making things randomly different than they were five minutes ago. Like how there was now a huge lineup behind me that was impatient for me to stop arguing with my dream and get on the damn slide. So I took off my watch, necklace, earcuff and socks (note the absence of my glasses...the dream had to give me that one) and went down the slide. Then a whole bunch of other stuff happened, including Christmas, and I woke up before I ever got back to my socks at the top of the slide.

fireworks

I went to see the fireworks yesterday. I LOVE FIREWORKS!!! When I was a bride-to-be and reading all those crazy magazines, the only themed wedding I read about that wasn't tacky beyond all belief was a fireworks-themed wedding. I totally could have had a fireworks wedding. Except we got married in January, and nobody would have had fun shivering in the cold while watching fireworks.

So, Vancouver has one of those international set-the-fireworks-to-music competitions. Yesterday's performance was brilliant, it was all set to jazzy music, including some Gershwin and also the Pink Panther (which had low, dim pink stars for the sneaky-sounding bits and then really glitzy ones for the pizzazz parts). One of my favourite things that they did was slowly build a rainbow (over the course of maybe a minute or so) from shooting lots of those plain red stars off to one side, then adding some orange ones that shot a little more vertically, and then some yellow ones pretty much vertically, etc., until they had a big rainbow fan of coloured shooting stars. I like it that they got really creative by using a whole bunch of cheap fireworks that any joe shmoe could buy instead of only showing off with the $500 a shot big ones (which were also very impressive).

I also enjoyed the really fun and classy jazz selection they used. I've seen these fireworks competitions done with classical selections, which are also cool, but classical just gets done way too much with fireworks. Then there are the more "avant-garde" presentations with Madonna and Euro pop and who knows what other kind of weird stuff, and these ones just end up bit bizarre. But the Gershwin was just plain sexy. I'm not even a huge fan of Gershwin to begin with, but he totally can do fireworks!